If You've Had Treatment to the Genitals or Reproductive Organs Even the prospect of surgery or radiation treatments for these cancers can make you intensely concerned about your body image. But it is usually impossible to predict the effects of treatment for any one person. Treatment can affect some people's ability to get erections, ejaculate or have intercourse. The same treatment for someone else might result in little or no change in sexual functioning.
Anxiety Sexual problems that seem to be the physical results of treatment may actually be due to anxiety. You can reduce your worry by discussing potential problems and possible solutions with your doctor or other members of the health care team before treatment. This discussion will also reassure you that if problems do come up there are ways of handling them. Since in most situations physical and emotional causes of sexual problems interact, your exploration and experimentation about what you can do is very important. Your diagnosis does not dictate what is possible for you sexually.
Painful Intercourse You may find that intercourse is painful not only after treatment for a genital cancer but also if pelvic or total body radiation has been part of your therapy. There are four common reasons why this problem may arise:
